I fished Lenice on Thursday and saw both adult damsels and a few Callibaetis spinners. All the fish I took hit damsel nymphs. One was a complete fluke. I was reeling in the fly and spotted a fish chasing it; I stopped, he took it.

I've been seeing sporadic hatches for over a month now, but only a few big enough to get the fish excited. There were huge black caddis(around size eight or ten) coming off today that had some big fish looking up. I've been playing around a new lake up in the mountains after work last week, and damseles were everywhere, in the air, migrating throughout the lake, crawling all ove my boatrHad a couple thirty fish evenings using a six pack, and drinking one too.

Well, in that case, maybe they weren't alderflies either. Unlike caddis, alderflies can't float and begin to sink and drown if they land (or get blown down onto) the water. I fish a lightly greased soft hackle to imitate them, and the fish will usually inhale them while I'm twitching them make them appear to be struggling on the surface, or as soon as they start to sink.

it seems there is a 2 or 3 size range with mayflys . the small 16 size or the 14-12 ish size. at least in my limited travels. just wondering if they get to maybe a size 10. when we fished Chopaka many years ago, i seem to remember some bigger may's coming off. but that was 30 years ago.

The earliest Callibaetis to emerge in the spring are those hatched from eggs laid the previous fall whose nymphs have had a longer time to feed and grow. The adults of this first generation might be large enough to be imitated on a size 12 hook. Callibaetis, like other members of the family Baetidae, are multi-generational and members of the second generation may begin to emerge while members of the first generation are still doing so. As a result, members of subsequent generations (having a shorter length of time to feed) tend to be smaller than those of the first. These generations continue to hatch through the summer and into the fall providing hatching mayflies on a continual basis for the angler. There appears to be a cycle with three peaks of population size occurring in late spring, mid-summer and fall.

I've read that the size of Callibaetis mayflies diminish through the season from 12 to 18 but my experience has been that a size 14 will almost always get the job done. Most of the time I fish a floating emerger pattern and believe that overall size is less critically important in this style of fly. Here's a picture of my emerger which I call the Chopaka Emerger

Preston's Chopaka Emerger is one of my favorite flies for callibaetis hatches. I use an older version with three pheasant tail fibers for the tail. The wing hangs on the surface, while the body and tails hang under the water. It's so realistic that fish will often suck the fly down into their mouths, requiring forceps or a release tool to remove the hook.

Thanks Tom, I can't claim total credit for the pattern but I have fished it and modified it considerably over a number of years. The original version (which was shown to me by a friend of a friend, who had it from "an old-timer at Chopaka") included a wire rib to make it float tail-down as described above but, over the years, it has been my observation that the emerging Callibaetis floats horizontally in the surface film while doing so. The trailing shuck (represented by the sparkle yarn fibers) may be pushed down and under the surface as the adult forces its way out of the nymphal shuck but the emerger usually retains a horizontal attitude. Just to simplify things, I apply floatant to the whole fly, including the trailing shuck.

Some times, for some reason, the fish will show an apparent preference for the dun so I felt obliged to come up with a dun (a fairly simple deer-hair-winged parachute) although they will usually respond to the emerger from the start of the hatch until there are only a few duns left floating on the surface. And then, since I couldn't find a suitable one (most Callibaetis nymph patterns seem to be too fat and bulky), an imitation for the period preceding the actual hatch when the nymphs become quite active. Then, of course there is the spent spinner although I have usually found it to be the least important stage.
Sorry, that should be nymph, dun and spinner.

great, thanks Preston. did well on my tan chronomid. size/color same as the may's. i like to add a crystal flash rib. to get the notice of cruising fish. like your ties. will try them if given another shot at a mayfly hatch.

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The earliest Callibaetis to emerge in the spring are those hatched from eggs laid the previous fall whose nymphs have had a longer time to feed and grow. The adults of this first generation might be large enough to be imitated on a size 12 hook. Callibaetis, like other members of the family Baetidae, are multi-generational and members of the second generation may begin to emerge while members of the first generation are still doing so. As a result, members of subsequent generations (having a shorter length of time to feed) tend to be smaller than those of the first. These generations continue to hatch through the summer and into the fall providing hatching mayflies on a continual basis for the angler. There appears to be a cycle with three peaks of population size occurring in late spring, mid-summer and fall.

I've read that the size of Callibaetis mayflies diminish through the season from 12 to 18 but my experience has been that a size 14 will almost always get the job done. Most of the time I fish a floating emerger pattern and believe that overall size is less critically important in this style of fly. Here's a picture of my emerger which I call the Chopaka Emerger